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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add... (More)

About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September. (Hide)

Tough negotiations ahead for Castlewood management

Uploaded: Aug 23, 2012

It's a challenging time to be a board member of the Castlewood Country Club.
Castlewood has been caught in a struggle with its unionized dining room and kitchen employees for more than two years after deciding to lock out the union members when negotiations for a new contract stalled. The club then hired replacement workers.
This week an administrative law judge found in favor of the union and declared that the country club quit negotiating in good faith when it changed its offer to the union. The lockout took place after the workers' union did not accept the final offer.
The judge found that the club was liable for full back wages for the locked-out workers who have been picketing, along with surrogates from the mother union, since the lockout occurred. It's really a different scene on the first tee with union folks screaming and the club trying to drown them out with music played over the loudspeakers. Think kickoff at a football game.
The potential tab-- $3 millionouch.
Great news for the union negotiators who now seem to have lots of leverage tough challenge for the board and their attorneys (somebody seemed to have miscalculated big time to leave the club and its members facing this kind of liability).
Disclosure: I have never been a member, but have played the course and dined at the club in a variety of events over many years. I live nearby so I've seen the workers and the members consistently for the past two-plus years.

Reading a recent digital bulletin from the Bay Citizen, I was struck by the report about Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan seeking another $175,000 for the outside investigation into complaints of police misconduct during the Occupy Oakland protests. The city already has agreed to pay an outside law firm $100,000.
Certainly allegations of police misconduct deserve to be investigated, but who is conducting the investigation into how Mayor Jean Quan's welcoming attitude toward the protests sparked them. A different attitude from the mayor may well have resulted in a different result for the city that suffered $100,000s of damage thanks to the rioting protesters.

KPIX TV's management decision to reassign (demote) the popular Roberta Gonzalez was reminiscent of KTVU's decision to remove Mark Curtis from the Morning News anchor spot in favor of the current anchor Dave Clark. Despite Clark being a bad fit for the Bay Area and the No. 1 rankings the Morning News enjoyed with the team of Mark Curtis and Pam Cook, Mark was sent packing.
Like Roberta, he was very active in the community, participating widely in community eventswell beyond the call of duty for TV personalities.
In Roberta's case, she had been promoted from the early morning broadcast to the prime TV newscasts. She has been reassigned to weekend weather with additional field reporting during the weekin other words, the third weather slot for the station from the No. 1. The good news is, for the time being, she still is employed and that's a good thing for a quality person who lives here in town.
Presumably KPIX management had a reason to bring in the former Seattle-based Paul Deanno at the end of the month. Time and